French actor Gerard Depardieu delivers a speech during a campaign rally for France's President Nicolas Sarkozy on March 11. Photo: REUTERS

GENEVA — French actor Gerard Depardieu revealed his motivation Thursday for taking on the screen persona of disgraced International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn … he does not like him.

“I don’t like him, so I’ll do it,” Depardieu told an interviewer from Swiss TV channel RTS. “He’s not lovable. I think he’s a bit like all the French, a bit arrogant. I don’t much like the French anyway … He’s very French. Arrogant, smug.”

Hollywood director Abel Ferrara is prepping for the film, which will not be a straight biopic but is “inspired” by the fall from grace of the 62-year-old former French presidential front-runner. The movie will also co-star French actress Isabelle Adjani as Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair.

Depardieu said it was not necessarily Strauss-Kahn’s libertine lifestyle that he objected to but his general attitude.

“It’s the way he walks, with one hand in his pocket,” Depardieu said. “We can all have filthy thoughts, and it’s well known that these guys with huge power, money, the IMF or top judicial officials can be like that.”

Strauss-Kahn resigned his position as head of the IMF after being arrested when a New York hotel maid accused him of attempted rape last May. The case against him eventually collapsed. On his return to Paris, Strauss-Kahn was then accused of attempting to rape writer Tristane Banon in 2003, but the case was not pursued.

But Strauss-Kahn is not off the hook just yet, having being linked to an alleged prostitution ring in the northern French city of Lille. He admits attending swingers’ parties and having a liberal sex life but denies knowing that any of the participants were prostitutes. He is due in court later this month.

Depardieu himself is no stranger to scandals in his own personal life — most recently being thrown off a Paris to Dublin flight after being caught short and attempting to pee into a bottle. He is also, coincidentally, a strong supporter of President Nicolas Sarkozy — the man Strauss-Kahn would have been challenging in the upcoming election.